Barnacles at Langamull
I’ve been visiting Mull for over ten years now and it’s such an amazing place. When I found a black stoneware which fired the colour of the rocks at Langamull beach, my barnacle range was born.
Sand bowls
Set against the beautiful black rocks on Mull, you have the brilliant whiteness of the sand. When I’m walking on the beach at Calgary or Langmull I can get totally absorbed in the patterns of water and the distribution of shells and seaweed left by the sea. I wanted to capture this in a bowl, and create something that I could look down on to transport me back to the beach again.
I started by trying to paint what I was seeing in oxides under white glazes. I liked the fresh whiteness of the glaze, but I wasn’t somehow quite enough, so I wondered what would happen if I started to add relief to the main bowl. The photos below show my first relief ‘sand bowl’. Working on it, I felt like I was almost painting in clay and oxides. I enjoy throwing big bowls, and then adding to them is incredibly satisfying. I’m on the hunt for a slightly different clay body for this style of work, and I’m really hoping to do more in 2024.
